I’ve been out of the loop the last couple of weeks, but just found out that Ed Gorman died on October 14. Like many of us, I considered Ed a good friend, yet only knew him through telephone and online, since he rarely came to conferences. Ed and Marty Greenberg bought my first book for Tekno/Five Star.

Ed and Jerry (Jeremiah Healy) also were buddies, corresponding nearly daily by email to spar joyfully over politics and world news. (Jerry--though a democrat--liked to pose as "just right of Attila the Hun.") When Jerry died in 2014, Ed helped me break the news to our friends in the mystery community, knowing I was barely holding myself together.

Later. in response to a note asking how I was doing, I told Ed that I wasn't sure I'd be able to write again. That the very act of sitting down in front of the computer filled me with dread. His response? "Fear and self-loathing are part of the writing process."

And so, I put my butt in the chair and wrote. That book is coming out in three days.

While going through Jerry's things before the move, I found a three-inch thick stack of email exchanges he'd printed out. I asked Ed if he wanted them. He did. The day after the package arrived, Ed emailed to thank me, saying he'd read them through in one sitting the night before. I like to imagine the two friends are having those discussions in person these days.

So, bless you, Ed, and good rest. You may not have known it, but you've always been an angel to me.